Dacoities rock Assembly

THE SPATE of daredevil dacoities in Bhopal reverberated in the State Assembly with the opposition staging a walkout following unsatisfactory reply from the Government over a call attention motion on the law and order situation in the State capital.

Neither Minister of State for Home Nagendra Singh’s reply on the dacoities nor Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s plea about the Government being serious on the issue convinced the Opposition.

Referring to dacoities at the houses of a retired IAS officer —hotelier and a builder — loot of truck drivers and loot attempt at the Makhanlal Chaturvedi Journalism University, the Opposition members said the City dwellers felt insecure due to a spate of crimes and the police failure to arrest the culprits.s.

Speaker Ishwardas Rohani too said that the recent incidents are a matter of grave concern and the State Government should ensure that the guilty were brought to book early.

Intervening in the debate, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the police have several clues to the dacoities but refused to disclose them. He, however, assured the House that the criminals involved in those incidents would soon be
brought to book and the booty recovered from them.

Admitting that the number of police personnel had not been increased in proportion to population growth, the Chief Minister said about 2,000 police personnel would be recruited to overcome the staff shortage.

Earlier, replying to the debate, Minister of State for Home Nagendra Singh said the police investigations have revealed certain vital clues about the gang involved in the crimes. Police parties have been sent to Delhi and Bihar for further investigation, he added without elaborating much beyond that.

Nagendra Singh rejected the opposition demand for dismissal of the Director General of Police and suspension of Superintendent of Police for their alleged failure to control crime, saying so far no laxity was found in the working of the DGP, IG and SP.

“The government will not allow them to continue on the post even for a day if they are found guilty,” he added. During the discussion, the House plunged into uproar on many occasions with ruling and opposition members trading charges on the functioning of the police. Speaker Ishwardas Rohani expunged the opposition remarks relating to spurt in crime in areas other than the State capital.

Sajjan Singh Verma, Arif Aqueel, Sunil Nayak, Sukhdeo Panse, Ramniwas Rawat and Narayan Tripathi, who took part in the discussions, alleged political interference in police working and suspected complicity of police officials in a few major crimes.